This invention relates to a miniature golf apparatus, and more particularly to a versatile golf game apparatus capable of being played on various support surfaces.
Miniature golf courses of various sizes, types and designs for outdoor play, are well known in the art, but are basically of a permanent construction requiring substantial capitalization for construction and little, if no, adaptability for changing designs.
Pool tables of various sizes are also well known in the art.
Table top games simulating miniature golf adapted to be played with pool or billiard cues and billiard balls or disks are illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ 709,007 Gibb Sep. 16, 1902 1,566,057 Wilkinson Dec. 15, 1925 1,813,116 Clausen Jul. 7, 1931 ______________________________________
The Clausen patent discloses a sheet or playing surface upon which is painted or formed various golf course routes and hazards and which is adapted to be placed upon an existing pool table in which the six corner pockets are utilized as golf holes.
British Pat. No. 387,740, dated Feb. 16, 1933, discloses a simulated miniature golf game incorporating a board at floor level encompassed by rails and displaying various simulated golf course routes, for playing with a conventional golf club and golf ball. The surrounding rails or walls are adapted to deflect the golf ball to rebound and move in routes similar to those experienced on a pool table.
However, none of the above patents disclose a miniature golf game apparatus including not only a flexible mat upon which is displayed a playing surface, preferably in the rectangular shape of a pool table for mounting thereon, but also a plurality of independent, discrete, bumper rails and detachably mountable pocket members for assembly with the mat to define a miniature golf playing surface at floor or ground level.